Diversity, Equality & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion initiatives aren’t just there to avoid controversy; they should be there for life. Orla McAuliffe outlines six key changes that can be made to D&I efforts to make a better, smarter and more effective organisation. Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is often spotlighted among significant, life-defining issues of gender, race, disability, or sexual orientation. It is often assumed that if these issues are not relevant to your workplace, it doesn’t need your attention. However, if you make space and time for D&I in the workplace before it becomes necessary, your business, workforce, and customer base will all benefit. Rather than being treated as merely a tool to avoid controversy, an effective D&I programme will lead to a new appreciation for the diversity of thought, inclusive leadership models, and customer diversity. What is often overlooked is that the introduction of D&I initiatives not only ticks legal boxes and avoids problems; it also encourages the growth of your business in incredible ways. Increased employee retention, growth in productivity rates, increasingly satisfied customers, and a rise in online attention and positive reviews can all be traced back to real-life examples of D&I success stories. Managers take the lead Anyone can and should strive to make their workplace more diverse and inclusive. However, it is vital that leaders – who are ideally from a range of demographic backgrounds themselves – are seen to be genuinely enthusiastic about fostering cultural diversity in their organisation. Additionally, these leaders must include and work with middle management on this issue. Six things leaders can do to promote D&I Workplaces can take a few practical steps to become more diverse and inclusive without a full D&I plan or training: Review your company’s website and other materials and update the imagery so that all demographic groups are represented somehow. Allow flexible work hours and location. Particularly in the post-COVID-19 world, remote working should not be treated as a bonus but as a fact of life. It is a gamechanger for many individuals with specific physical needs, family responsibilities, or neuro-divergencies (such as dyslexia or autism spectrum disorder) who may otherwise be intimidated by the office environment. Not only are you giving them an opportunity to work, but their fresh and unique perspective will often make a significant impact on your team and contribute to your workplace’s diversity of thinking. Make your physical workplace inclusive. The legal accessibility requirements should be treated as the bare minimum. Check the temperature (most buildings default to men’s comfort zone, not women’s); think about buying sanitary products for the bathroom; buying non-alcoholic and alcoholic beer for staff events; and providing milk alternatives in the canteen. Avoid using unnecessarily gendered language in all literature, from job descriptions to everyday communications. This goes beyond the use of pronouns and extends to language more generally. For example, using gender-coded words like ‘aggressive’ in a job description may dissuade women from applying. Instead, focus on results-oriented job descriptions. Familiarise yourself with the world calendar and bear in mind that employees, customers, and suppliers may belong to different cultures and observe different holidays. Include events such as Pride month, and engage in a way that feels sincere and natural – not everybody needs or wants a parade. Still, customers and employees appreciate feeling seen and valued. Engage with your community and partner with non-profits or local organisations, particularly those that mirror your existing business model. Orla McAuliffe is Founder of the Professional Training Centre.

While diversity and inclusion have become commonplace, much needs to be done to embed them in organisations. Andrea Dermody gives us five steps on how you can implement it effectively on a day-to-day basis. The term ‘diversity and inclusion’ (D&I) is becoming more commonplace. People are familiar with the concept of diversity, but what does inclusion mean? Inclusion is when people feel included, treated fairly and respectfully, in a culture where they are valued and have a sense of belonging. According to research in Juliet Bourke’s report, Which Two Heads Are Better Than One? How Diverse Teams Create Breakthrough Ideas and Make Smarter Decisions, inclusive organisations are six times more likely to be innovative and agile and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes. So why does inclusion continue to be an afterthought to diversity? What are the practical things you can do to build an inclusive culture in your team and organisation? Define – Create a definition of inclusion that works for your organisation. What makes you and your colleagues feel included at work? Then, understand that inclusion is not just a two-line definition. You need to clearly state what every day behaviours ensure your people will feel included, such as: being actively listened to and understood; being treated fairly and with respect; actively included in discussions; feeling like ideas and opinions are valued; having teams that work together to achieve results; witnessing managers develop colleagues equally; and having managers actively resolve team conflict. Develop – Build up your managers and colleagues to understand inclusion by incorporating the definition and behaviours into your existing learning and development. Some may already behave inclusively, but if you really want to address how people are treated in your organisation, you need to influence everyone’s behaviour every day, and make this behaviour deliberate and conscious. Champion – Promote a clear ‘tone from the top’ around diversity and inclusion, ensuring that leaders understand the value of, and are committed to, delivering inclusion. Diversity without inclusion does not drive the full benefit to the organisation – hiring underrepresented talent without an inclusive environment in which to share their expertise and thrive is a waste of time. Measure – Figure out how to measure success. Does your employee survey ask about the behaviours you have identified as inclusive? If you don’t have this information now, build it into future surveys. In the meantime, run focus groups and gauge how people feel they are treated at work, ask them what makes them feel included and then action your findings. Reward – Use your employee survey, 360 feedback, performance reviews and focus groups to measure whether leaders are effectively building inclusion into their teams, and then reward and promote accordingly. People will see that you are rewarding inclusive behaviour and actions. This highlights positive role models in the organisation and creates a path for progression which requires an inclusive style. These five steps at an organisation or team level will lead to: individuals who are more engaged and have greater intent to stay; colleagues who are willing to speak up when they see something wrong because they are listened to, which helps you identify risks and health and safety issues early; teams that are innovative because they listen to each other respectfully and understand the value of difference, leading to better co-operation; managers who are more productive and fulfilled because they know they are treating their teams fairly and creating an environment where individuals can thrive; and leaders who inspire trust, commitment and loyalty in their people because they take the time to understand and value them as individuals. Andrea Dermody is a diversity and inclusion consultant, speaker and coach at Dermody.

While much progress in gender equality and diversity and inclusion has been made in recent years, the impacts of COVID-19 threaten to undo all that hard work. Mark Fenton explains. As we experience our restricted lifestyle due to the pandemic, I have been reflecting on what impact this crisis is having on gender equality and diversity and inclusion (D&I). And I am worried. Will our new, abnormal future be an optimistic beacon of progressive inclusion and equal representation, or does it risk taking us back to a more traditional and less inclusive past? The world is not equal for men and women. We know that. Huge disparities exist around the world, not just in terms of workplace remuneration and working conditions, but also across access to professional development, sponsorship, and even basic education. Nevertheless, in many countries, significant progress has been made. In the UK, for example, a record number of women are in the workplace – 72.4% at the end of 2019. Furthermore, The Financial Times reported in October 2019 that the proportion of women on the boards of the UK’s most valuable 350 public companies exceeded 30% for the first time, having risen more than three-fold since 2010. Both men and women have had to organise their lives to support dual career families. Most organisations have made at least some progress towards supportive technology, policies, benefits and practices that enable more flexible models to ensure that every employee can be more effective and feel more included. A growing suite of empirical, global research now shows that this corporate strategy of D&I leads to significant, measurable impact on gender equality and on bottom-line performance. McKinsey recently reported on a global analysis of over 1,000 large companies which demonstrated that those companies with the most gender diversity are 48% more likely to have above-average profitability as compared to the least gender diverse organisations. In recent years, society has embraced a professional outsourcing model when it comes to the traditional support roles of childcare, cleaning, food preparation and socialisation. This has freed up many of us to pursue the career and life we desire. This new social model has been lauded as the non-level ground-breaking progress towards a more equal workplace and society at large. Then COVID-19 appeared, and everything changed. We live in a new reality of global home-working, social distancing and cocooning. The outsource model is gone – schools and crèches have been shut for months on end and are only now slowly opening up. Restaurants and bars remain boarded up and we are back to a time of self-sufficiency vis-à-vis home schooling, house cleaning, food preparation and general maintenance. With all these extra tasks, how has society divvied them up? Have we, as self-professed progressive supporters of equality, rationally and fairly allocated the day-to-day running of our home, our family, and our careers? Has the shift towards remote working and the full-armed embrace of tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc., delivered the expected growth in support of women and gender equality in general? The answer may depend on who you ask. And the reality should disturb you. There is evidence that society may have taken steps back to a more gender stereotyped and genderised division of labour. Many people report that it is women who are doing most (if not all) of the home-schooling activity, while continuing to do the lion’s share of cooking, cleaning, and the organisation of virtual socialising. This is often while attempting to succeed in a busy corporate role based at the kitchen table. Us men, on the other hand, have replaced our 8-10 hours in the office with a similar duration on Zoom calls based in the more bespoke environment of the attic office or study. We start early (before the home-schooling day begins) and surface for breaks and mealtimes, or perhaps a fun family activity in the late afternoon/early evening. Yes, it is hard to do our jobs via Zoom, but men have the benefit of supportive practices at home. Some, maybe even many, may disagree. An interesting article in the New York Times exposed the gap in pandemic-era domestic work. It was reported that while nearly half of men say they do most of the home schooling, only 3% of women agree. Furthermore, a third of men with children under 12-years-old claimed to be the person most responsible for housework or for childcare, while women agreeing with either statement did not even register above 2%. Why? Cultural expectations around roles and responsibilities remain and this crisis, by putting a short-term focus on securing/maintaining income and work opportunities, has allowed these expectations and implicit biases to flourish as women default to juggling – more than ever – schooling and household activity. We need to address this disparity quickly to avoid taking backward steps in the long journey towards gender equality and a more inclusive society. What this crisis has taught us is that we need to better collaborate as a society and be more inclusive and supportive. We need to value all the micro-actions that were easily discounted or outsourced before, but which are now viewed as important. Men must continue the spring forward they started and not step back from their modern role in family, work and society. The future is in our hands. We can emerge as a more connected, equal, and respectful society. Our difference is our strength. How we include these differences and each as a unit (a relationship, a family, a community, a society, a global world) is key to future success, whether individual, corporate or industrial. Mark Fenton is the Founder of MASF Consulting